Learning to Dance Again (33 page)

She reached for her handbag and took out her phone and sent texts to Marianne and Cameron. The Up Helly Aa celebrations would continue for another hour, so she didn’t expect a reply from either of them.

‘Julia?’

She put her phone back in her bag and reached for Tony’s hand again.

‘I’m still here. I called your son; he’s flying over later.’

But Tony did not hear, as he slipped back to sleep.

The nurse came back and told Julia they were taking him up to a ward shortly. She suggested that Julia went home to get some sleep.

‘
I can’t; I live in Shetland. We flew down in the air ambulance last night.’

‘Ah
yes, sorry. Why don’t you see if there’s any room at the Shetland hostel. You can ask at patients’ services.’

Julia stood up and
then bent to kiss Tony’s cheek.

‘I will come and see you later.’

Julia left the hospital. She did not want to stay at the hostel, which was used to provide accommodation for islanders waiting for treatment or accompanying sick relatives. She wanted somewhere anonymous and quiet.

She rang Bryden who had just got up for work and explained what had happened.

‘Oh Christ, is he going to be alright now?’

‘I’ve no idea, but I can’t go home and leave him here on his own, at least not until his family arrive. I was hoping you might be able to go online quickly and find me a hotel. I really need to sleep for a few hours.’

‘Yeah, of course. I’ll do it right now and ring you back. Any preferences?’

‘No, it will be hard enough to find a room anywhere in Aberdeen
at such short notice.’

‘OK, I’
ll do my best.’

Bryden rang her back ten minutes later with the news that there was a room at the Jury’s Inn hotel at a price of £120 per night. Julia walked over to the taxi rank and went straight there; only to find the room wasn’t available until mid-day, but there was a room free immediately for £150. She sighed with frustration, but took it anyway. Within ten minutes of entering the room she was fast asleep.

She woke four hou
rs later, momentarily unsure where she was. Daylight peeped through the edges of the blackout curtains, and she sat up wondering what time it was. She grabbed her phone and rang the hospital to see how Tony was, and then she slumped back in the bed and read the texts that were waiting on her phone.

Marianne had written
:
thank God, been worried sick about you all night. Ring me later xx.

Cameron had written
:
glad to hear the good news. See you soon, take care x.

Julia was too tired to respond to the messages, but she made herself get up and take a shower, in preparation for a return trip to the hospital. She put on some clean clothes and brushed her teeth, and used the hotel’s complementary hand
cream in lieu of moisturiser for her face. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked ghastly, but she had nothing other than a lipstick in her handbag to brighten her features.

She was stopped by a nurse before she got to the ward and interrogated as to who she was. Julia was puzzled for a moment, but the nurse explained there had been a journalist hanging around wanting to speak to anyone connected with Tony.

‘A journalist?’ Julia replied.

‘Yes. He’s a famous writer isn’t he,’ the nurse said, looking at Julia as if she was stupid.

‘I suppose he is.’

Julia stepped into the relative quiet of the ward and found Tony. He opened his eyes as she approached him.

‘Julia! I’m so glad you came back. I thought you must have gone back to Shetland.’

‘Don’t be daft. I just went and booked into a hotel and had a bit of a sleep. It was quite a tiring night, more than usual for an Up Helly Aa, I can tell you.’

‘Sorry about that. I can’t think what I was playing at.’
Tony smiled, as she sat down next to the bed after greeting him with a kiss on his cheek.

‘How are you feeling now? You were a bit groggy earlier.’

‘I think I’m OK, thanks to you?’

‘Thanks to me? I don’t think so; more like thanks to the surgeons who patched you up.’

‘I understand that there probably wouldn’t have been much left to patch up if you hadn’t been so quick with your first aid.’

‘That was nothing. Someone else helped me too.’

‘Well anyway, I’m truly grateful, and I’m very sorry I spoilt your night.’

‘Don’t be silly.’

‘No really; I was just watching you dancing with your friend Cameron and feeling just a little bit jealous, and then it was lights out. That will teach me.’

Julia didn’t reply for a moment, as she wasn’t sure whether Tony was being serious, or just flirting again.

‘Have you heard when your son and daughter might arrive?’

‘Enzo rang a little while ago;
he couldn’t get here until tomorrow, and Eleni is too pregnant to travel, so I told them not to bother. It was so expensive, and I’ll be flying home again soon enough. There’s nothing for them to worry about now.’

‘Really? I would have thought Enzo at least
would still want to come and see you.’

‘Oh, he
did, but he has exams coming up; I would hate him to miss anything important on my account.’

Julia
shook her head in disbelief.

‘Has the doctor said how long you might be in hospital for?’

‘He said it depends on how I get on over the next forty eight hours. They want to make sure I don’t get any infection or any complications. But he doesn’t want me to fly back to Italy just yet. I won’t be fit to travel that far for another week or so.’

‘As long as that? Will you be able to come back to Shetland though?’

Tony shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.

‘You can stay as long as you like; it’s no bother.’

He smiled. ‘Thanks; I appreciate it. I might be let out of here by the weekend, if I’m very lucky.’

‘I’m sure you will be.’

22

Tony was allowed to fly back to Shetland on Friday evening. The hospital booked
both them onto the evening flight, and the patient transport ambulance delivered them to the airport. As they sat together in the departure lounge, Julia observed that Tony seemed to have shrunk; not so much in stature, but in his demeanour. He seemed nervous about flying, checking and rechecking his boarding card, and fiddling with his Italian driving licence, the only piece of photo ID he had on him when he was admitted to hospital.

‘Won’t be long now. I expect you’ll feel much better sleeping in a real bed tonight.’

Tony appeared not to be listening to her. He was staring at an advert for Highland Park whisky. Julia gave up trying to make conversation with him.

‘I should just fly back to Sicily. This is nonsense. I don’t see why I can’t fly home now.’

‘Don’t be silly; Shetland is less than an hour away. It would take three different planes to get you back to Sicily. You need to be a bit more rested before you take that on.’

‘But I’m going to be a nuisance for you.’

‘No you’re not. Of all the people to be staying with after having surgery, a trained nurse has to be the best. What kind of nuisance do you intend to be? I doubt you’re going to be running around drinking and partying.’

Tony smiled for the first time since they had left the hospital.

‘You’re a good friend,’ he said, touching her arm.

‘Exactly; and you were a good friend to me when I came to Sicily. So don’t go making a fuss about staying with me. It really is no bother at all.’

‘Thank you.’

They boarded their flight and less than an hour later they arrived at Sumburgh. This time Julia’s car was not waiting for them in the car park so they had planned to get a taxi back, but waiting for them at the airport was Marianne.

Julia hugged her gratefully.

‘Oh, you didn’t have to do this, but thank you,’ Julia said to her friend as they walked out to her car.

They walked slowly, on either side of Tony. Marianne put her arm through his.

‘Well, I never really got a chance to speak to Tony, so at least this way I get to see him. You did give us a fright; and something to gossip about too. I should warn you it’s in the
Shetland Times
this week. Famous author is airlifted to hospital after Up Helly Aa gives him a heart attack.’

‘Really?’ Julia said, alarmed at the thought.

‘Well not quite as dramatically as that. But you could tell the editor thought it was more of an interesting story than the usual goings on. There is a little bit of an insinuation that you two are an item though. So you may need to warn Bryden and Jamie. They’re bound to hear some ridiculous gossip.’

‘Ah, well, it was in the
Press and Journal
too, so they already know. Some horrid young reporter ambushed me in the hospital café and then wrote some stupid piece about me. His angle seemed to be that I was a lonely unemployed widow that had latched onto Tony, hoping to add a bit of glamour and excitement to my life.’

Tony chuckled and
winked at Marianne.

‘Glamour and excitement, playing nursemaid to an old man like me. That would take some imagination.’

Marianne filled them in on the rest of the news, which wasn’t really much at all. She drove them back to Julia’s house, and then left them alone, after extracting a promise that they would come round for Sunday lunch.

Marianne had been into the house
earlier and left a casserole in the fridge, and some fresh bread and milk.

‘You have lovely friends,’ Tony said, as Julia took the lid off the casserole dish.

‘I do, don’t I? Now, why don’t you go and have a rest, and I will make us something to eat.’

‘I’m not really hungry actually. But I could do with an early n
ight. I’ve been looking forward to sleeping without a light on, and some nurse coming in to check my vital signs every couple of hours.’

Julia laughed. ‘Well you can certainly turn the light off, but don’t count on me not creeping in to s
ee if you’re OK.’

Tony looked at her in alarm
and then realised she was joking. He smiled and then made his way slowly up to the bedroom.

Julia made herself a cup of tea, relieved to be back in her own home. The hotel had been very nice, but there was nothing like coming home. She sat down on the sofa and switched on her iPad, curious to know what she had missed on Facebook over the last few days.

It seemed that all she had missed were a series of photographs of Up Helly Aa and some strange comments alluding to her new “relationship.” She didn’t bother to respond, but switched off the iPad and lay back on the sofa feeling exhausted.

S
he rang Jamie, only to find he was working and couldn’t speak. She rang Bryden who assured her that although they had heard some of the crazy rumours about her, they knew they were not founded on anything sensible.

She put the phone down and then sat in blissful silence for a while. She wasn’t hungry either and couldn’t be bothered to make anything to eat. She shut her eyes and was almost falling asleep when her mobile phone bleeped. It was a text from Marianne.

“I meant to say that Cameron seems to be a bit miffed about you and Tony. Do you think he’s jealous?”

Julia sighed and shook her head in disbelief. She didn’t know how to reply to that snippet of news so she got up and went to bed, even though it was only just after nine.

The next morning she woke up late, despite the fact there was a gale blowing outside. Wind and rain battered the window, which made her reluctant to get up. She would have been tempted to turn over and go back to sleep, but for the fact she
had a guest to look after. She put her dressing gown on and tip-toed along the landing to see if she could determine whether Tony was awake yet.

She tapped o
n his door. There was no reply, so she turned and walked away, presuming he was still asleep. Then she stopped and listened, and then walked back to the door and leaned in with her ear up to the door. Silence. Julia knocked on the door sharply.

‘Tony?’

When he failed to reply she opened the door, holding her breath with anxiety.

His bed was made; the room was tidy and he clearly wasn’t in it. Julia sighed with relief and w
ent downstairs to see where he had gone.

He wasn’t in the lounge or the kitchen. She walked over to the k
ettle; it was hot, so clearly Tony had been downstairs recently. She could not believe she hadn’t heard him get up. She switched the kettle on again and decided to make herself a cup of tea. She couldn’t imagine where he had gone, since the weather did not invite anyone to go out walking, but she decided she didn’t need to go looking for him; he was obviously feeling well again.

She took her cup of tea over to the kitchen table and sat down. Rain drizzled down the kitchen window and the clock ticked. It was peaceful. Julia sipped her tea and thought about ringing the boys later
. She heard a noise outside and looked up to see a man walking past the window. She dropped her mug in shock, and barely noticed the tea cascading over the table and onto her feet.

‘Duncan!’

Julia stood up suddenly, and then sat down just as quickly, when she realised how stupid she had been.

She was
still sitting with hands covering her face when Tony opened the door and stepped into the kitchen.

‘Are you alright, Julia
?’ Tony said, as he unzipped the khaki parka he had been wearing, and took off a multi-coloured Fair Isle hat.

Julia withdrew her hands from her face and stared at Tony. He watched him take off Duncan’
s coat; still reeling from the shock of thinking she had seen her husband. Her fingers were trembling and she couldn’t speak.

Tony laid the coat over the back of another chair. He noticed the spilt tea and reached for the kitchen roll. He pulled off a few sheets of paper and started to mop up the liquid.

‘Julia? Are you alright? You’re as white as a sheet,’ he said, picking up the mug and taking it over to the sink.

All Julia could feel was
crushing despair. That fraction of a second when she thought she had seen Duncan had undone months of recovery.

Tony crouched down beside her and took her hand
.

‘What’s happened; tell me.’

‘I saw you walk past the window; I thought you were my husband.’

Tony looked
back at the coat he had borrowed and swore under his breath.

‘Oh Julia, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think
. I seem to have lost my coat and I wanted to go outside to see what the weather was like.’

‘It’
s OK; don’t worry. It was just a shock, that’s all.’

Tony stood up and patted her on her shoulder.

‘Let me make you another cup of tea.’

‘No, please; I think I’ll just go up and get dressed. I need a few minutes to get my head together.’

Julia went upstairs and when she got to her bedroom she slipped under the duvet and pulled it over her head. Her eyes were hot with unshed tears, but she couldn’t cry. Too exhausted with the process of grief, she curled up into the foetal position and prayed for peace.

Two hours later she awoke to the sound of someone knocking on the door. She pushed back the duvet, unsure of how long she had been asleep. The door opened hesitantly, and she was surprised to see Marianne standing there carrying two steaming mugs.

‘I made you some tea,’ Marian
ne said. She sat down on the edge of the bed facing Julia. ‘Tony told me what happened. Are you OK now?’

‘Oh God, I feel so stupid,’ Julia replied, looking at her bedside clock and realising how long she had left Tony d
ownstairs on his own. ‘Poor man; it wasn’t his fault. He must feel awful.’

‘Don’t be silly. He was telling me how he would often
think he saw his wife around the town, long after she had passed away. He knows how it feels.’

‘I suppose. But look at the time, I really should get up and start looking after my guest.’

‘He’s fine. He’s downstairs talking to Brian and the girls; telling them all about Sicily. I bought your coats and your drinks bag back from the Town Hall. You left them there when the ambulance came.’

‘Oh thank you. At least he won’t need to borrow Duncan’s coat again.’

Julia came downstairs twenty minutes later to find that Marianne had made everyone drinks
and had set out some homemade cakes she had brought along. Julia hurried over to Tony and gave him a hug, to show that she was OK. He smiled, and kissed her cheek in reply.

‘So,
what are everyone’s plans for today?’ Julia asked, as she helped herself to more tea and a piece of fruit cake. She glanced out of the window and noticed that the storm had moved on.

‘I think I might just take it easy today,’ Tony said, ‘I’ve got some writing I need to catch up on.’

‘We’re going round to see baby Charlie soon. We’re babysitting tonight,’ Marianne said, looking smug with pleasure.

‘I see; well I think I m
ight just have a quiet day too.’

Marianne and her family left half an hour later and Julia was left alone with Tony. He went upstairs to retrieve his laptop and then made himself comfortable at the kitchen table. Julia fetched her iPad and did likewise, after making some more tea. They sat there in companionable silence for most of the afternoon.

Later on, Julia left Tony to carry on writing while she made something for their dinner. While they ate, they talked about his new book, and then moved on to the subject of their children. The atmosphere had lifted, and Julia felt a sense of calm and optimism by the time the evening came along.

Tony had put his laptop away and they settled down to watch television. The weather had become a little coarser, but with the curtains drawn and the solid fuel fire burning peats in the corner, the lounge was warm and cosy.

As they sat on the same sofa together, with a tartan blanket over
their legs, Julia realised they must look like some old married couple. She had often sat in a similar position with Duncan over the years. She smiled at the memory and turned to look at Tony who had nodded off.

She leaned over to wake him up.

‘Maybe you should go up to bed now; you need to rest after your surgery.’

Tony
smiled, and yawned. ‘Maybe I should. I’ve enjoyed this evening, thanks. It’s a long time since I did anything so ordinary; and I mean that in a good way. I either seem to spend my evenings alone, or “entertaining.” Neither of which is as much fun as simply hanging out with a friend. I could get used to this.’

‘So could I,’ Julia
replied smiling, before realising there could be a double meaning to this.

She stood up quickly and folded up the tartan blanket and draped it over the back of the sofa. She walked over to the fire and made sure the door was secured firmly. Then she walked out to the back door to lock it, not that there was any need to, but she suddenly felt anxious.